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STONEHENGE, Queensland, Oct. 14, 2025 — Queensland police have launched a search and rescue operation for a 59-year-old man whose car was found abandoned near this remote outback community last week, more than a year after he was last seen behind the wheel.
The vehicle, a purple Honda Jazz with Queensland registration 832AT5, is registered to Craig Michael Trethewey. He was last seen at about 8:15 a.m. on March 7 last year, and police say there has been no confirmed contact with him since. Investigators and family members have both expressed concern for his welfare.
The car was found Oct. 4 in a dry floodway about one kilometer (0.6 miles) off the Jundah-Longreach Road, roughly two kilometers north of a local landmark known as the Stonehenge jump-up. A person mustering livestock in the area spotted the vehicle and alerted police.
Initial examinations showed the Honda had previously been damaged by floodwater and had not moved for a significant period before it was found, police said.
Stonehenge is one of the smallest settlements in Queensland's Channel Country, a vast, thinly populated region of cattle stations, grassy plains, and river systems that flow only after heavy rain. The jump-up — a low escarpment that separates the flat Mitchell grass country from the stony tablelands further west — is a familiar reference point for anyone traveling between Jundah and Longreach.
The roads in this part of Queensland are lightly trafficked. A vehicle sitting even a short distance off the roadway can go unnoticed for weeks, particularly in a floodway that is dry and grassed over for most of the year. The person who found the Honda was not a commuter or tourist but a musterer working on surrounding country — a reminder that in the outback, routine station work often produces the first clue in a missing-person case.
Before the discovery, Mr. Trethewey's case had no fixed physical focal point. The Honda now gives investigators a location to anchor the search, a meaningful step in a region where distances are measured in hours of driving and mobile coverage is patchy or absent over long stretches.
The last confirmed sighting of Mr. Trethewey came on March 7, a date that falls at the tail end of the Channel Country's wet season, when sudden thunderstorms can send water across roads and through floodways without warning. Police have not commented on local weather that day, but the flood damage on the car indicates it was caught in rising water at some point — possibly soon after the last sighting.
How the Honda ended up in the floodway has not been explained. Investigators have not released details about the vehicle's interior or whether any items belonging to Mr. Trethewey were found with it, and it is unclear whether phone or financial records have helped police build a picture of his movements after March of last year.
The purple Honda Jazz, known as the Honda Fit in the United States, is a compact hatchback far more common in city suburbs than on remote gravel roads. That contrast may help anyone trying to recall a sighting: this was not the kind of vehicle usually seen in the Channel Country.
As the search continues, several questions are likely to shape the investigation:
Police have not commented on specific lines of inquiry, but these are the questions that typically drive a remote-area missing-person review.
Remote searches in Queensland usually combine ground patrols, aerial checks, and interviews with people who regularly use local roads — mail contractors, road-train drivers, station workers, and transport operators. In cases where an abandoned vehicle is recovered long after the fact, search teams also tend to examine nearby waterways and drainage channels in case someone became trapped while attempting to walk for help.
The distances involved make public appeals important. In sparsely populated country, a single witness can be the difference between a quick resolution and a prolonged investigation, and even minor details can prove significant.
Police have not disclosed where Mr. Trethewey was believed to be traveling that morning or how well he knew the area. The case has resonated locally, where networks of station owners, mail runs, and community pages have picked up the appeal; in a region where neighbors can be tens of kilometers apart, informal communication is often the fastest way a message spreads.
Police are urging Mr. Trethewey to make contact, and are appealing for anyone with information about his whereabouts to come forward. The family is supporting the investigation, and both police and relatives have said they want to confirm that he is safe.
Anyone who traveled through the Stonehenge area in the days around March 7 last year — including tourists, truck drivers, and seasonal workers — is asked to think back to anything unusual, such as a purple Honda Jazz on the road or parked in an unexpected spot.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Queensland Police or Crime Stoppers.
